


[select character]

by Ka_she_who_lurks



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: "the gamer" infusion, BAMF Pepper Potts, Jarvis lives, Not Steve Friendly, Not Wanda Friendly, some parts of real life are under Pepper's control by way of computer game mechanics, this is just me playing around with an idea
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-30 01:44:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10866423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ka_she_who_lurks/pseuds/Ka_she_who_lurks
Summary: Pepper gains a power! What is she supposed to do with this nonsense?





	1. Well. This is awkward.

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the fact that Pepper, in the movies, deals the finishing blow to Tony's enemies more often than not.

It started after the mess with Stane, may he burn forever.

It was, of course, dreadfully embarrassing.   
She still wasn't quite sure if it meant she was a mutant, or just another recipient of something cosmically unlikely, whether it was some mysterious energy, or some weave thing from what Thor called the Norns, or some other nameless oddity. 

After accepting, to an extent, the fact that her very life was now weird beyond what she'd get into thanks to Tony, she tentatively named the... oddity "gamer ability".

It mostly meant that things were more easily to recognize, and that working out actually worked as fit-obsessed people wanted you to believe it did.  
And that some of her work was more of a mini-game that was solved a whole lot faster than working her way through a stack of contracts and agreements and making contact with businessmen who, still more often than not, were rather conceding of a pretty face that didn't have the nuts and sausage set dangling between her legs.   
Also, she could carry around the contents of an office, half an armoury and most of a house without carrying so much as a purse. 

But mostly, it was pretty useless as maybe-mutations went, and she was fine with not telling anyone ever.   
Not in the least because it was rather hard to explain why her main official title was "the final executioner".


	2. grinding + no upper limit = your white mage skills are getting a little OP

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The most logical thing to do if you get a weird new superpower is figuring out how it works.   
> The most logical thing to do if you get healing powers is by using them on people who need them. Especially if the medical system in your country is fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Having a pause-button for the world seems pretty great.

It was with a continuous flush of embarrassment - and the reminder to herself that it wasn't childish, a lot of people played games - that Pepper bought herself a set of computer games and a decent D&D manual.   
Since the... thing... seemed to work like some gaming structure, she might as well check out some games for similarities and ideas. 

It wasn't until the notification popped up of "unlocked new skill!" just as the little character on the screen found a magic scroll and used a spell that she began to have a sinking feeling about this. 

Eventually, she ended up with about fifty spells from different games, most of which were absolutely useless unless there was a combat situation or if someone needed healing. And what on earth was a buff?   
Though the "repair item" spell seemed useful for some things. 

She then thought about her life choices, sank her head while repressing a wince, and started organizing her house until she felt like she could look at herself in the mirror again. 

Then she decided to try out the healing spells by casting the area-effect one called "healing storm".   
If magic sparkles did appear, she could just walk away without the glowy glitter show following her and declaring her the cause of the disturbance.   
Fortunately, the effect appeared to be completely invisible to anyone but her. 

The next day there was a news article on the internet about a local hospital about someone that the doctors had given up on suddenly making a miraculous recovery.   
Pepper sighed, and pinched her nose bridge. 

The next day, she got on the arc-reactor motorcycle Tony had once given her while he was in one of his manic phases, paused existence, rode through the entire city and cast the spell on every hostpital and poorer neighborhood she had looked up while planning her route.   
She then rode back home, un-paused, got hit with a whole bunch of "you gained XP!" messages and some other ones like "your "magic" skill leveled up!" at once, blinked them away, and got to work as normal. 

The next day, she drove further away from home.   
The day after required her to be three cities over for a business meeting so she packed the bike in her inventory. 

By the end of the week, she could cast city-wide healing spells.   
On the one hand, nice, on the other, this meant that, even while breaking speed limits, she had to drive through most of the state before she felt she'd done an acceptable amount of work with it. 

Fortunately, by the end of the month, she could just call up a map, select a few cities, cast the spell a few times, get some normal things done for an hour or so, call up the map again when her mana was recovered, repeat process.   
Two weeks later, she could cover most of a continent before lunch break.   
One week after that the ability "world healing activation" announced itself in her mental queue with a cheerful little ring. 

She checked it out. It was exactly what it sounded like. 

Pepper threw her hands up in expiration, and went on a coffee break.


	3. contact details

"You have added Anthony Edward "Tony" "Iron Man" Stark to your party!" the notification went.   
Well, that worked just fine then. 

"You have added Harold "Happy" Hogan to your party!"  
"You have added Colonel James "Rhodey" "War Machine" Rhodes to your party!"

She tried something a little different.   
"You have added J.A.R.V.I.S. to your party!"

So all she had to do was find a way to select a person? Good to know.   
... It occurred to her that she didn't have all that many people to add.   
"I am such a workaholic." she sighed.


	4. Things that may or may not be in Pepper's google history, in no particular order

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things that may or may not be in Pepper's google history, in no particular order.

"How to buff your teammates."

"How to permanently buff your teammates."

"How to increase the health points of your teammates."

"How to share xp with your teammates."

"How to keep your stupid friends from dying."

"How to keep your dumbass boss from having his sternum cracked and his vital organs damaged by an overly aggressive supersoldier who is now an international criminal."

"How to make sure your teammate who usually joins you in keeping your other teammate from doing stupid shit, doesn't do stupid shit that ends with him hospitalized, oh my god Rhodey, this is why you're his best friend, you guys are way too similar, also, do you have any idea how much of a hassle it's going to be to heal that shit without anyone getting suspicious? Do you?"

"How to get it through the metaphorical skull of the one teammate you have that you trusted to have some goddamn common sense to make reasonable precautions. Like making a backup or fifty of yourself if you're an A.I. so poor, hardworking C.E.O.'s don't have to break into a secured server room with dinky do-it-yourself power tools to cast a resurrection spell on the person who would normally open those doors for them."

"Where to find good angle grinders."

"How to help a person with ptsd."

 

"If I'm getting prematurely gray hair, I'm blaming you all."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I know it's superhero universe mechanics and such, but, a decent punch of a (somewhat trained) normal human being hitting the strenum of another normal human being can make the heart of said other normal human being just straight up stop. 
> 
> That makes that one scene very, very creepy.


	5. I swear, that man has terrible survival instincts.

"Intermediate boss enemy Loki has cast "greater mind control" on party member Tony Stark. It did not overcome his natural buff."

Pepper was a little surprised. "Natural buff?" she asked, and looked it up.

"Party member Tony Stark's natural buff exists out of "arc reactor (greater artifact, prosthetic body part of Tony Stark), title effect "greater smith", title effect "greater engineer of the future", title effect "father of ensouled A.I." and "latent magic" skill."  
"Party member Tony Stark is under negative effects "Howard Stark's asshole parenting", "Howard Stark's parental neglect", "Lonely childhood", "Misunderstood genius", "Stark men don't cry", "Post-traumatic stress disorder", "Torture survivor", "Victim of treachery" that reduce resistance against emotional manipulation."

"Huh." Pepper said.

"Intermediate boss enemy Loki has cast "greater mind control" on party member Tony Stark. It did not overcome his natural buff."

 

"Party member Tony Stark is under attack by Loki."  
Who knew magic. Who was more experienced and likely more powerful than her. Likely, an attempt to help Tony right now would backfire. Dare she risk it?  
As it turned out, she didn't need to.

 

"Party member Tony Stark is under attack by chitauri trooper."  
"Party member Tony Stark is under attack by chitauri trooper."  
"Party member Tony Stark is under attack by chitauri trooper."  
"Party member Tony Stark is under attack by chitauri trooper."  
"Party member Tony Stark is under attack by chitauri trooper."

Well. This was the perfect time to figure out some of those attacking spells, wasn't it.

 

"Party member Tony Stark is under effect of outer-space radiation."  
"Party member Tony Stark is under effect of hard vacuum."

Pepper narrowed her eyes at the gash in the sky. "Cast "supporting healing" on party member Tony Stark. Cast "remove illness" on party member Tony Stark."


	6. Pepper is so tired of dealing with this shit

"Party member Tony Stark is under attack by Killian's hired mooks."  
Yes. She noticed.   
It was a little difficult to feel exasperated at a little line of text when you were under attack and high on adrenaline yourself, but she managed. 

… Who was Killian anyway?

 

"Party member Tony Stark is under effect of emotional mind alteration manipulation effect of Wanda Maximoff."

After a while, Pepper actually noticed the little line of text.   
"Cast "lift curse" on party member Tony Stark." she said absently, while figuring out the best way to allocate budget.

 

"Party member Tony Stark is under attack by Ultron."  
Of course he was. Was she strong enough yet to punch trough metal and endure whatever chemicals or electricity was in there? According to her stats, she was only as strong as a professional athlete, so probably not.

 

"Party member J.A.R.V.I.S. is under attack by Ultron."  
What?

"Party member J.A.R.V.I.S. has deceased."  
No, seriously, what?

"Uhm, locate party member J.A.R.V.I.S.!" she blurted out.   
The map popped up and a part of the building where some of the more high-tech and better secured servers were kept lit up in a dull red.

 

"Party member Tony Stark is under attack by Steve "Captain America" Rogers."

"Party member Tony Stark has deceased."

"Map." she said, exhaustion ground into her voice. "Locate party member Tony Stark."

 

Wasn't it lucky that resurrection spells worked so well on party members whether they were human or not?  
Pepper looked at Tony's heaving form, the way he struggled to breathe and didn't feel very lucky at all. 

Mostly she just felt cold.   
And empty. And angry. Can't forget the angry.   
But that could come later. 

First, she had to make sure this friend made it through alright as well. 

 

"You have added Friday to your party!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess I should add the tags not steve friendly and not wanda friendly?  
> I mean, Steve's usually an okay and likable enough character, in some fanfic, and the non-grimdark canon. But there's also the parts of canon where he's Captain 'Murica, and, yeah.   
> He's cool enough in his own movies, and I like little "fight me" Steve Rogers just fine, but in the avengers movies, I'd like to put that overbearing arrogant might-makes-right my way is moral and all those who oppose me will die whether they were a threat or not, whether they were innocent or not, where he belongs; in the trash. 
> 
> And then there's Wanda.  
> On the one hand, yay, more female characters and an avengers setup that isn't "Black Widow and the mayonaise sausage fest" (unless Tony's mom is Latina in this universe as well, but since that's never mentioned...)  
> I would be happy if she were a hero.  
> I would be happy if she were a villain.  
> However, she's a villain that's treated like a hero.   
> She's Patty Hearst without the reasons of being kidnapped, and with more murder and mindcontrol, and Patty Hearst was an unsymathetic criminal who just got away with it due to being pretty and white.  
> She joined team Nazi's-R-us out of her own free will, she uses mindcontrol with no reason, she blames people for things they didn't do rather than the people responsible, she has the whole "I suffered, so other people should too" attitude...   
> She's a villain, but the narration doesn't treat her like it.


End file.
